Matthew's hands traveled from neck to shoulders.

Eyes the color of a stormy sea looked into mine from a face so pale it could only belong to a vampire. 'Open your eyes, Diana, and see for yourself.' A feather-light touch of cool lips brushed my cheek, followed by a soft chuckle. There was a tang of wood smoke, too, and I heard the crackle of a fire. Among them was something grassy and sweet, along with a waxen smell that reminded me of summer. Even so, the unfamiliar scents told me I was not in my own time or place.

'Are we in the right place?' My eyes were screwed shut in case we were still in Sarah's hop barn in twenty-first-century New York, and not in sixteenth-century Oxfordshire. A large book was squashed between us, and the force of our landing sent the small silver figurine clutched in my hand sailing across the floor. Matthew was underneath me, his long limbs bent into an uncharacteristically awkward position. Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.We arrived in an undignified heap of witch and vampire. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens. Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches' cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew's old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh.

The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. 'Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown' - the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller A Discovery of Witches Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon.

Shadow of night harkness